Independence day all over again

Rating: 4/10 (18 July 2013)

I saw all the glowing reviews for this, and thought some balance was needed as it seemed everyone was watching a different film from me. Pros: Amazing special effects and action set pieces! Cons: Pretty much everything else.
Now I think its important to explain that I'm not Amercian and not a teenager, and so I don't like cheese on everything, especially my movies. I had no issue with the premise of the film, which was essentially robots V monsters resembling dinosaurs. I had no issue either with the casting, especially seeing as it starred Charlie Day and Idris Elba, two actors I greatly admire. What I did have issue with, after seeing the film was that there was absolutely no originality within the sub plots whatsoever. It hit just about every single cliché that Is contained within this type of film. It was Independence day all over again. I wont give all the examples, there are too many to really mention. Suffice to say, the last cliché though, where Idris Elba explains that because of radiation if he fly's one more time it'll kill him, only to minutes later, suit up because he is a last hope remaining, was too much to bear. And how many times in films, does it happen when a bomb needs to be deployed, that the dispatch button doesn't work at the last minute, so the hero needs to put himself in mortal danger to hit the manual override. Honestly, where is the originality. Oh yeah, don't forget the rousing speech before the last fight scene, you know the Winston Churchill type of garbage that declares "we are the last hope". And finally at the point when the war was won, and the heroes were safe, everyone in the command center, started the predictable hugging and cheering to the rousing music. It nearly made me throw up. It looks like all the time was spent on the effects, and the script was thrown together at the last minute. Lazy!!